Faith's Adventures In Babysitting
by boop-oop-ee-doo
Summary: Two-parter. Faith must babysit Sophie, Willow and Tara's daughter, which leads to exploding marshmallows, a sugar rush, and a bedtime story involving our favourite dark slayer busting out of the big house.
1. Never Put Marshmallows In The Microwave

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy

AN: This two-part fic is inspired by a line in my story "Tara And The Witch", about Faith babysitting Willow and Tara's daughter, Sophie. It takes place a few weeks after my story "Willow's Child", but you should be able to follow this without having read them. Dedicated to Wolfchild87, who requested this.

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"I really don't think this is a good idea, Red."

"Come on Faith, please?" Willow begged. "It's only for a few hours. This is the first time Tara and I have planned to go out since Buffy brought her back, and I don't want to cancel our reservations just because none of our usual babysitters are available." Giles had called Buffy to London a week before to help avert another apocalypse, and she had taken Dawn and Xander with her, while Faith stayed behind to keep the Cleveland Hellmouth in check. "Besides" Willow continued, "Sophie loves you. She won't be any trouble." Faith sighed in defeat.

"You're sure you'll only be a few hours?"

"Just dinner and a movie, that's it."

"Fine, I'll watch Little Red for you."

"Oh, thank you, thank you!" Willow squealed, throwing her arms around the dark slayer and making her feel slightly awkward, as she usually only let Buffy hug her. "I'll go tell Tara!" As she watched the wicca run off, Faith felt a small smile come to her face. This might not be so bad. After all, Sophie did love her, and Faith had grown more attached to the little girl than she'd ever admit. And, despite spending the first three years of her life with demons, the kid was an absolute angel ( the heavenly kind, not the brooding ensouled vampire kind ). Faith's smile grew. This babysitting thing was going to be a piece of cake. Hell, it might even be kind of fun.

_That night.._

"Bye-bye, Mommy Willow, bye-bye Mama Tara!" Sophie called from her space on the front porch beside Faith, waving to her mothers as they climbed into the car.

"Bye, Sophie!" Tara called back.

"Be good for Auntie Faith!" said Willow.

"I will" Sophie replied. After the two witches drove off, the little girl turned to the Dark slayer, gazing up at her expectantly.

"So..uh.." said Faith awkwardly, "What do you want to do Little Red?"

"It's almost times for dinner" said Sophie.

"Right, guess I better feed you somethin'."

"What?" asked Sophie, following Faith as she headed back into the house and towards the kitchen.

"No idea, I've never really cooked that much" said Faith, searching through the cupboards. "Come to think of it, until the last few years I never really ate that much unless I could afford it." Sophie's blue eyes widened in horror.

"You coudn't affords food?!" _"Damn" _Faith thought. She really needed to watch what she said about her past in front of the kid.

"Don't worry kiddo, I wasn't starvin' or anythin'" Faith lied. "But.. well, let's just say that my mom never really looked after me as well as your moms look after you. I had to start takin' care of myself way before kids are supposed to." The Dark slayer continued to search through the cupboards, hoping that Sophie wouldn't ask anymore questions, and thankfully, she didn't. A smile spread across Faith's face as she decided what they were going to eat. "You and me are gonna have some fun, Little Red" said Faith, pulling some packages out of the cupboard and placing them on the kitchen bench. Sophie eyed the bags of gummi bears, marshmallows, fun-sized chocolates, and other assorted treats.

"My mommies say you're not 'sposed to have candy before dinner." Faith's smile grew bigger, and she had a slightly crazy look in her eye which reminded Sophie of the mad scientists in cartoons.

"The candy _is _dinner." As Faith located a large mixing bowl and began emptying the contents of each bag into it, Sophie started to feel a little worried.

"I don't thinks Mommy Willow will be very happy abouts this" she said. Tara probably wouldn't mind, as long as it was only a one-time thing. While both witches were extremely protective of their little girl, Tara was a slightly more laid-back parent than Willow, mostly due to a desire to allow her daughter the freedom she missed out on during her own childhood.

"Well, what Red doesn't know won't hurt her" said Faith, pushing a pile of fun-size chocolate bars towards the little girl. "Now help me open these."

When the bowl was full, Faith carried it to the microwave.

"Auntie Faith, I don't thinks you should do that" said Sophie, her eyes wide with panic. "Mama Tara says..."

"We won't tell Mama Tara" said Faith, starting up the microwave.

"But..."

"No buts, kid. This is gonna be..." Faith paused, staring at the microwave as the thick, sugary mass inside it began to swell and bubble ominously. "Shit" said Faith, forgetting to mind her language in front of the three-year old, "Hit the deck, Little Red!" The two dove to the ground just as the microwave burst open, covering the kitchen in a shower of sticky goop.

"I tolds you you shouldn't do that!" Sophie scolded her aunt as she extracted a half-melted gummy bear from the slayer's dark hair, "Mama Tara says marshmallows 'splode in the microwave!"


	2. Bathtimes And Bedtime Stories

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, but I do own Sophie :)

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After scooping what little part of the sweet, sticky concoction that was not currently coating the entire kitchen into a bowl for Sophie, Faith proceeded to clean up the mess, which was no easy task as the mixture was already beginning to harden.

"Eat that up quick, Little Red, or else it'll turn to rock and make it harder for us to dispose of the evidence"

"Okay, Auntie Faith" said Sophie, plunging her spoon into the bowl.

When Faith had finished the clean up, she returned to Sophie. The little girl had finished eating, but she was a mess, with her hands and face covered in the sticky goo, as well as some residue from the explosion clinging to her clothes and hair. Faith also noticed that Sophie's pupils seemed very wide, and she could have sworn she saw the child twitch.

"Uh, you okay there Little Red?" Faith asked, worried.

"Uh-huh" said Sophie nodding her head very fast. "_Unnaturally fast" _Faith thought. _"I better fix this quick or Red's gonna kill me."_

"Damn, you've made a pretty big mess of yourself there kid" said Faith, trying to hide her growing panic. "I think I'm gonna have to give ya a bath."

"Okay" said Sophie, bouncing off her chair and speeding to the bathroom, bursting into random fits of giggles along the way.

"Great" Faith grumbled, following the little girl, "I've gone and turned one of the world's most well-behaved three-year olds into a hyperactive sugar fiend."

While Faith filled up the bathtub, Sophie began undressing herself.

"Auntie Faith, can we play hide and seek?" Sophie asked.

"Sure, after you've had your.." Faith heard the sound of running feet and turned to find Sophie missing, her clothes abandoned on the floor. "Shit" Faith muttered. The bath was nowhere near being full, so, thinking it wouldn't take too long to find Sophie, the dark slayer left the tap running while she began her search for the little girl. "Come on, Little Red" Faith called, heading into the lounge room. "If your Mommy Willow finds out about this she's gonna kill me, literally. Not to mention she's one of the few people in the world with the power to actually do it." Faith's slayer hearing picked up a small giggle. "This isn't a game Little Red" she continued. "If your moms find out what happened tonight, they might not let me play with you for a long time. You don't want that do ya?" There was a pause, before a small face peeped out from behind a curtain.

"No" said Sophie, "I likes playing with you Auntie Faith."

"I like playin' with you too, Little Red" said Faith. "Now let's go have your bath, okay?" The pair headed back to the bathroom, and opened the door to find the bath flooding.

"Shit!" Faith yelled, again forgetting to mind her language as she rushed to turn off the taps, almost slipping on the wet floor.

"Silly Auntie Faith" Sophie giggled, "You forgots to turn the tap off!"

After Faith had cleaned up the water and Sophie finally got her bath, the little girl began to feel tired, so Faith helped her with her PJs and tucked her into bed.

"Auntie Faith, will you tells me a bedtime story?" Sophie asked.

"I don't really know many stories, Little Red.."

"Please?" Sophie begged

"Okay then, just give me a second to think of one" said Faith, settling down beside the little girl. "Got it. Once upon a time, Auntie Faith's old watcher Wesley, who isn't known for makin' the greatest decisions, decided it was a good idea to take Uncle Angel's soul out so that Angelus, bad Uncle Angel, could tell him info about some demon. But then Angelus escaped and started wreakin' havoc, so Wes needed Auntie Faith to control him until he got Uncle Angel's soul back, but Auntie Faith was stuck in the big house at the time, so..."

"..Then your Mommy Willow put Uncle Angel's soul back and I went to Sunnydale with her to help fight the First evil. The end" Faith finished. "'Night, Little Red." She stood to leave the room, but Sophie grabbed her arm.

"Wait! Auntie Faith, will you stays with me 'til I falls asleep? I gets nightmares."

"What kind of nightmares?" Faith asked, sitting back down.

"Nightmares that the demons are gonna come back and takes me away again."

"You don't have to worry about that Little Red" said Faith. "Your Mommy Willow took care of them, remember? Her and your Mama Tara would destroy any demon that tried to lay a finger on you, and so would Auntie B, and Auntie Dawn, and Uncle Xander..and me. Nothin's gonna happen to ya while we're around. But if it makes ya feel better, I'll stay with you."

Before long, Sophie was fast asleep, Willow and Tara came home, and every thing was fine...until breakfast the next morning when Sophie declared "How Auntie Faith broke out of the big house" as her new favourite story.


End file.
